Housing

Majority of newcomers had accommodation arranged before arrival

The majority (81%) of the immigrants who arrived in Canada between October 2000 and September 2001 had some form of housing arranged before their arrival, even though the accommodation may have been on a temporary basis.

As expected, newcomers who had relatives or friends already in Canada at the time of their immigration were more likely to have arranged some form of accommodation before their arrival in their new country (89%), compared with those who did not have any kin or friendship network in Canada (62%).

After their arrival, about 24% of new immigrants did not need to look for any further housing. Most of these individuals arrived under the family reunification category, likely joining the household of other family members already in Canada.

Those immigrants who had to find further housing reported using various methods in their search. Slightly more than half (52%) talked to friends or relatives; 27% read English and French newspapers; 15% walked or drove around various neighbourhoods; and 11% consulted real estate agents. Smaller numbers (9%) browsed the Internet and ethnic newspapers.

Nearly 2 out of 10 immigrants already owned their home

At the time of the interview, 18% of the newcomers resided in their own homes. Another 74% were renting and 8% were housed in some sort of temporary accommodation, such as a hotel or motel or the home of an employer.

As expected, among the three main admission classes, family-class immigrants had the highest proportion living in their own home (38%) since many of these immigrants came to join other family members already living in Canada.

Of those people who were renting accomodations, 58% had plans to buy their own home, while 22% were unsure about plans for home ownership at the time of the survey. Only 21% had no plans to own a home.

While the majority (76%) of new immigrants lived in one-family households, 12% lived in multiple-family households. This represents a higher incidence than the total Canadian population, when in 2001 only 2% were in this type of living arrangement. Another 12% of newcomers lived either alone or with other unrelated people.

Among immigrants who landed during the one-year period, the average household size was 3.5 people, compared with the Canadian average of 2.6 people.

Six in 10 had no problem finding housing

According to the LSIC, most (62%) of the 125,100 immigrants who needed to look for housing did not encounter any problem.

Among those who did encounter difficulties, the most serious problems reported were those of high costs and lack of guarantors or cosigners. Almost one-third (31%) of the immigrants who reported difficulties said they found housing costs too high, while almost one-quarter (23%) did not have a guarantor or cosigner or could not get credit rating.

The third most serious problem was the lack of suitable housing. Among those new immigrants who identified at least one problem when looking for housing, 11% reported that they could not find housing that met their needs.

Immigrants living in Ontario had the highest proportion of persons citing high costs as the most serious difficulty (37%) and those who resided in Quebec had the lowest proportion of persons reporting this obstacle (20%).

	Table 3. Immigrants' experience finding housing, accessing health care services, acquiring training and entering the labour market, 2001
	Graph 2. The most serious difficulties immigrants experienced when seeking suitable housing, 2001

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